Suspected and laboratory-confirmed reported norovirus outbreaks in hospitals: outbreaks occurring in weeks 44 to 47, 2016
Updated 13 January 2017
The hospital norovirus outbreak reporting scheme (HNORS) recorded 47 outbreaks occurring between weeks 44 and 47, 2016, all of which led to ward/bay closures or restriction to admissions and were recorded as laboratory-confirmed due to norovirus. Between week 1 (week beginning 4 January 2016) and week 47 (week beginning 28 November 2016) 461 outbreaks were reported. Ninety-seven per cent (446) of reported outbreaks resulted in ward/bay closures or restrictions to admissions and 77% (344) were laboratory-confirmed as due to norovirus.
Suspected and laboratory-confirmed reported norovirus outbreaks in hospitals, with regional breakdown: outbreaks occurring in weeks 44 to 47 of 2016
Region/PHE Centre | Outbreaks between weeks 44 to 47/2016 | Total outbreaks weeks 1 to 47/2016 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Outbreaks | Ward/bay closure* | Lab-confirmed | Outbreaks | Ward/bay closure* | Lab-confirmed | |
East of England | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
East Midlands | – | – | – | 27 | 25 | 25 |
London | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | – |
North East | 3 | 3 | 1 | 70 | 66 | 52 |
North West | 1 | 1 | – | 44 | 44 | 28 |
South East | 9 | 9 | 3 | 46 | 45 | 30 |
South West | 15 | 15 | 15 | 121 | 121 | 98 |
West Midlands | 10 | 10 | 7 | 54 | 50 | 33 |
Yorkshire and Humberside | 8 | 8 | 2 | 97 | 93 | 77 |
Total | 47 | 47 | 29 | 461 | 446 | 344 |
* Note: not all outbreaks result in whole wards closures, some closures are restricted to bays only.
† The norovirus season runs from July to June (week 27 in year 1 to week 26 in year 2) in order to capture the winter peak in one season.
Note: The number of laboratory reports in the most recent weeks will increase as further reports are received. On 1 December 2014 a new laboratory reporting system was commissioned; as a result, direct comparisons between earlier reports (based on LabBase2) and the new system (SGSS) may not be valid.